Amritsar, February 9
Though the more-than-half-a-century-old Government Medical College boasts of being a premier institute in the region, but the impression virtually falls flat when it comes to the dilapidated infrastructure it offers in the name of hostels.

Even the common and guest rooms are sans proper sitting arrangements.

The broken balconies of the rooms in the hostel, without any iron grills, are open invitations for mishaps to happen.

The students, visibly upset about the prevailing dilapidated conditions and sorry state of affairs, said the authorities never pay heed to their woes.

“We do not know whom to approach and where to register the complaints. No official has ever thought of rectifying the problems”, the students rued.

Observing the pitiable conditions of the building The Tribune team took stock of basic amenities, only to find that the sewerage system of the hostel was defunct. While passing through, it emanated a foul smell and the stagnant spillover sewage was a perfect ground for breeding mosquitoes and flies.

“We filed a number of complaints regarding the blocked sewerage leading to filthy water entering the premises of the hostel to concerned SDO and Junior Engineer, besides the Principal of the College, but nobody bothered to rectify the problem,” said a student residing in the F-block of the hostel, preferring not to be named.

He said the sewerage pipes were broken due to construction work going on in the adjoining building.

Narrating woes, another student said the medical college authorities only allot them the rooms without even the basic electrical fittings and doors. He said they themselves have to arrange for electrical fittings from personal expenditure.

Dr. SS Shergill, Principal Medical College, while talking to The Tribune, admitted that there were problems and added that he had already directed the Public Health and other concerned authorities to remove the blockage.

Besides, he said he had also asked Public Works Department to make an estimate for replacing the old doors. He said they were also going to make provisions for table tennis in the common for the students’ recreational activities.

About the guest room, he said the girl students had also brought the matter to his notice and he had inspected the hostel and would soon be planning to provide one or two rooms for the purpose. 

Amritsar, February 9
The Municipal Corporation eventually took notice of the violation of the sanctity of the heritage wall encompassing the old city and closed nearly 20 shops and removed encroachments along it, from Lohgarh Gate to Beri Gate, here today.

With adequate police arrangements, the officials of the Municipal Town Planner (MTP) and Engineering Wing of the Corporation swooped down on the place of violation at five in the morning.

About 20 shops were closed outside Lohgarh Gate, where the residents had opened shops after demolishing the backside and had installed iron shutters.

Some of the shopkeepers had even encroached upon the pavement by placing their merchandise on it.

It was seen that masons and labourers hired by the MC were constructing walls to close these shops while the officials and police men stood close by.

A mini vegetable market has also sprung up on the pavement, which earlier used to have plants. The vendors sold green vegetables and fruit from the same place. It used to reduce the width of the road as people haggled to procure vegetables and fruit while vehicles finding it difficult to drive away.

Consequently, traffic jams have become order of the day despite the adequate width of the road.

In flagrant violation of the rules, owners of some of the houses have raised concrete enclosures at the rear side of their houses on the green belt. The shopkeepers and vendors stopped traffic to register their protest and raised slogans against the authorities. They claimed that they were not given enough time to secure their articles. They alleged that these shops were sole sources of their income and they were at their wits’ end on what to do next. Their blockade of the road severely hampered the flow of traffic. It is learnt that Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia, Chairman, District Grievance Committee had directed the MC to remove the encroachment along the heritage wall and close the illegal shops, opened after subverting the rules.

Municipal Town Planner, Shakti Bhatia informed that in all, there were about 70 illegal shops from Lohgarh Gate to Beri Gate. He said all of them would be removed.

Subsequently, in the next phase, the anti-encroachment drive would cover the area from Beri Gate to Chattiwind Gate.

Commissioner, MC, DPS Kharbanda said the pavement would be converted into a green belt. He said all of the violators have been issued notices and were given sufficient time to wind up their operations.

However, they preferred to ignore it and continued with their operations. 

Amritsar, February 9
Although the local Municipal Corporation is doing its bit to bring the heritage status to the holy city, it seems less bothered about the cleanliness and road infrastructure around the periphery of the Golden Temple.

Barring the main roads, it is the internal roads which pose the major problem for the residents, especially the ones that lead to the holy Sikh shrine from the Maan Singh Gate, Ghee Mandi Gate, and Shera wala Gate which fall in ward number 25.

The entry points speak volumes about the irregularities prevailing in the area. It is an irony that there is a negligible green belt. Thanks to the MC which gives two hoots to its well publicised go green campaign.

While visiting the spot, it was found that both sides of the Shera Wala Gate, there is massive encroachment on the green belt, which would also serve as a parking place for the vehicles.

Another astonishing factor which came to light was that the authorities have turned a blind eye to the vintage buildings, which have already been declared unsafe.

Vishal Kumar opined that it is as if the authorities wait for a major disaster to get up from their deep slumber to revamp these old buildings. The MCs duty is only restricted to serving notices to the owners of these dangerous buildings while it caring little about the follow-up action, the residents complained.

“I have been living in this area for the past many decades, but I never saw any works being done in the name of development, while the conditions of roads and sewerage system has gone from bad to worse during the period,” said Jugal Kishore, a resident of the area.

The traffic chaos and roadside encroachments remain the order of the day while authorities do nothing to remove the encroachments from the footpaths.

Amritsar, February 9
Insufficient number of traffic signals in the city could be a major reason behind the sharp rise in number of road accidents in past couple of years.

A resident of Majitha road, Rakesh Kumar had a miraculous escape in a road accident at one such intersection without traffic signal. However, his younger brother was not lucky enough and succumbed to his injuries. Rakesh sustained serious injuries and was bed-ridden for nearly a year.

Traffic signals are must on the Majitha road at the crossing near ENT Hospital, on the Circular Road leading to Jammuwali road and Ghala Mala chowk.

On GT Road, traffic signals are badly required outside Khalsa College for Women, Khalsa College, Guru Nanak Dev University and old octroi post chowk.

Resident Naresh Johar said, “Thousands of students of these educational institutions do live in danger. But the administration never bothered to take adequate measures to govern the traffic.”

Another busy crossing on the Court Road and Link road is also without traffic signal. The same is on the Mall Road where Green Avenue and Kennedy Avenue are situated. Also the flow of traffic has increased several times since the multi-storey shopping malls came into existence.

On the same road at Thandi Khuhi Chowk, entrance to historic Ram Bagh, there is no traffic signal despite heavy rush. Requirement of a traffic signal is also felt on the Maqbool road leading to Green Avenue which experience high volume of traffic since it serves as the shortest route between Ranjit Avenue to Lawrence and Majitha road.

A busy Rani Bagh road leading to another highly utilised Mc Leod Road is again without traffic signal.

Municipal Corporation Commissioner D.P.S Kharbanda said the corporation had already taken the matter into consideration and had decided to erect 11 traffic lights, where they are required. He said it would be difficult to give any time frame but the work would begin soon.

Amritsar, February 9
“Laptop is the main culprit for developing disk prolapse, backache and wrist pain. The reason is that it is generally placed on the lap and while working on it, people do not sit in correct posture as prescribed by medical experts,” opined Dr Atul Kapoor.

While elaborating, Dr Kapoor, who invented “Nucleoplasty technique” for curing symptomatic patients with herniated disk disease in the region, advocated that 15 degree angle should be maintained while sitting either on a computer chair or in a vehicle.

“There are over 6.5 crore people in the country who have been suffering from constant de-location of disk and backaches and majority of them develop this problem because of wrong posture, sedentary lifestyle, etc. Shun the habit of using notebooks while placing it over the lap in bed. It leads to disk problems later on and while typing on the computer keyboard it should be made sure that the elbows should have an under-rest,” said Dr Kapoor.

While discouraging the patients to go in for “conservative” methods, Dr Kapoor emphasised on visiting a qualified doctor only. “Actually, massages or exercises should be undertaken post-treatment. The roadside masseurs or unqualified doctors seldom possess any scientific knowledge and aggravate the problem,” he said.

“Nucleoplasty is an alternative technique to open surgery and the patients are discharged the same day of the procedure. This technique does not require any anaesthesia or the use of surgical blade and instead use plasma probe through a needle, introduced under image or scan guidance,” he said.

“Under this procedure, a needle is inserted into the incorrect tissue fibre only to absorb it. Once it is removed, the pressure is relieved from the disk causing pain,” he said.

“Normally, the entire procedure takes less than an hour and the patient can leave the medical facility one to two hours later, with no overnight hospital stay required,” he added.

Amritsar, February 9
The immigrant literature written particularly in Punjabi covers not only Indian thought but also international concerns, said former Vice-Chancellor, Guru Nanak Dev University, Dr S.P Singh in the inaugural session of the two-day national seminar on the 'Future of Immigration and Immigrant Punjabi Literature' which started here today.

The university, under the aegis of the Centre for Immigrant Studies of School of Punjabi Studies, is organising the seminar.

In his presidential remarks, Dr S.P Singh said it was vital that the uprooted people or self-exiled men living in alien lands were trying to be in the main stream.

He commented that the immigrants have achieved a prestigious position in literary circles with diligence and tenacity. Besides, they were enjoying eminent positions in the field of politics, social sciences, trade, education and agriculture.

He said the immigrants were perched at an advantageuos position for their global outlook.

He said since the world economic structure and powers of the globe were dictating their conditions with reference to globalisation and liberalisation, the role of the immigrant writer and immigrants was more important because the host countries were using their expertise and the home country was also eager to take help from them.

Dr. Manjit Inder Singh, former Professor, Punjabi University, Patiala while delivering his key note address, said Immigrant study needed a new interpretation because the new century would be known as a Century of Diasporas century. This Diaspora was now dictating international relationship, economics and politics, he added.

He said the diasporic literature has its own characters and specialties, which cover the feelings of the different parts of the world. He said the immigrant literature is a source of inspiration, integration, collaboration and understanding. It improves strategic human values, he added.

Dr. Darshan Singh Dheer and Dr. Mushtaq from UK, Dr. Balbir Kaur Sangheda and Dr Kirpal Singh Pannu, both from Canada and Dr. Swaran Singh from Denmark would also be participating in the seminar. 

Amritsar, February 9
The Amritsar rural police have nabbed two youths, allegedly involved in selling fake gold bricks to innocent villagers in Ajnala, here today.

Both were arrested during a naka laid by the police after a tip off. The police party recovered five bricks of duplicate gold, weighing 8.192 kg, from them.

Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, District Police Chief revealed that the accused Surjit Singh of Abbopur and Surjit Singh of Salempur, Ludhiana worked as courier for delivering the gold consignment. They used to take Rs 50,000 per brick for delivering the same. They had taken about Rs 14 lakh cash from Sakatar Singh of Ajnala and Sukhman Singh of Gujjar Pura and Jaswant Singh Nangal (falling under Ajnala police station) for the duplicate gold.

During investigations, it came to light that two persons - named as Khan and Pal Singh of Kapukkara in Haryana - were the gang leaders who randomly contacted innocent villagers from various parts of the state on their mobiles, luring them to purchase the gold bricks, claiming they belonged to the Mughal era and that they had found them during the excavation of land.

They settled to sell the gold at almost half the price of pure gold. First they showed the sample from the gold brick that is of pure gold and after the victims were convinced that the bricks were of original gold, they made the payment.

However, the accused, instead of giving them bricks of duplicate gold, made of brass and copper, polished them with a gold layer.

Chauhan said further investigations were on and more arrests would be made soon.

Amritsar, February 9
Urging for easing visa restrictions for visiting India and Pakistan, especially for those born before Partition in India and Pakistan, Tarlochan Singh, member of the Rajya Sabha, sought to introduce special permit scheme.

The former Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities said the move would help develop people to people contact. “The people to people movement cannot be developed until special privileges are extended while shunning the political frictions. Majority of them have expressed their keenness to visit their ancestral places on both sides. It would be great gesture on the part of both governments to further relax movement of people across the border,” he said.

Both governments had earlier agreed in principle, as part of the confidence building measures, proposed to allow “on the spot visa” for senior citizens keen to visit either side of the border. Nevertheless, the move could not fructify due to lack of intention on part of both governments.

“This will generate greater bonhomie and allow more people to people contact to ease the present imbroglio. The region has suffered due to the tension between the two nations and the time is ripe for taking new initiatives. These gestures will help in reducing the tension between the neighbouring nations,” he added.

Amritsar, February 9
The Rajesh Khanna starrer “Aaj ka MLA”, in early 80s, might have generated a lot of acclamation where the reel life barber becomes an MLA but this real life MLA has been gathering accolades for his role in films.

Meet Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal, an Akali MLA from Kadian, about 50 km from here, who plays a role of a police officer in a Punjabi flick “Insaaniyat De Vairi.”

Talking about his obsession for acting, Ladhinangal said, “It is my way of communicating with the people. Actually, acting is my first forte. Before joining politics, I was an actor”.

He has acted in Punjabi films like “Gori Dian Jhanjran”, “Ranjhan Mera Yaar” and “Shaheed Udham Singh”. “Priorities changed once I joined politics. And this is the first film after becoming an MLA,” he added.

While narrating the story of “Insaaniyat De Vair”, Lodhinangal said this film portrays the terrorism era which did tremendous damage to Punjab. “Besides this, it strongly portrays how in the garb of terrorism, people in connivance with the police managed to settle their personal scores and the circumstances created which forced the youth to take to arms”, he said.

The music of the film, directed by Parminder Singh Randhawa, has already been released.

Amritsar, February 9
This time if there was anything special during the games’ competition held recently at Springdale Senior School, Fatehgarh Churian road, it was the performance of two brothers Ekamjot Singh and Gurkomal Singh.

Ekamjot (9) and Gurkomal (10) bagged loads of medals during the athletic events organised under the Rejuvenation Experiential Programme-2010 on the school premises and went home with the overall best athletic performance trophy.

Very calm and shy, both brothers want to make the nation proud by earning name in international sports.

“Actually, we want to bring laurels to our country by bagging medals in international sports competitions,” quipped the younger one, while the older one interrupted, “We want to be in newspaper headlines and on television through sports so that our parents are known by our achievements,” said very confident Gurkomal.

Ekamjot said it was his father Gurpal Singh’s Reebok shoe store, which urged them to take to sports. “We both generally used to speak about sportspersons and celebrities who endorse the shoe brand we deal in and always wanted to be like them. Yuvraj and Dhoni, are our inspiration, but not for only cricket,” he emphasised.

Ekamjot said he pocketed four golds and a silver while Gurkomal bagged three medals in the same event. “Don’t worry next time my medal tally would cross yours,” said the elder one.

Their mother Komalpreet Kaur, a homemaker, too, ensures that their studies were not affected. “It is my duty to chalk out their study and play time plan. I make a timetable to ensure that their studies should not in any way be hindered by their play timings,” she said. Impressed by the Aamir Khan starrer “3 Idiots”, both Gurpal and Komalpreet were “cool” about the future plans of their children. “It will be for them to decide which field they choose and we will not interfere in their interests,” said Gurpal.